THE crisis of trust engulfing the political class is now so great that it seems to have penetrated even the consciousness of those who occupy the highest levels of the governing elites. My question to them is this: where have you been for the last 20 years?

The start of the road to this sorry state of affairs can be traced back to the Conservative Government during the BSE-crisis when it became very clear the Conservative Party would always place corporate business interests above the wellbeing of individual citizens (they still do).

This was then followed by the Parliamentary party's descent into sleaze, coupled with complete denial that anything was wrong, and finally the unedifying spectacle of government ministers becoming strangers to the truth.

An electorate eager for a fresh start welcomed warmly the creation of New Labour,' which promised a different style of politics based upon trust.

The message to voters was: you can trust us to be trustworthy.

We now know different.

The deception to justify a misguided war in Iraq, the blatant attempts to undermine of the independence of the BBC and allegations of impropriety at the heart of government over the award of honours and the subsequent police investigation have all but destroyed the last vestiges of trust in the ruling elites.

But it gets worse, for to add to the endemic feeling of cynicism there is now the sense of betrayal.

The collapse in voter turnout has been reversed by the simple expedient of the elites altering the voting system so that those standing for election can, if they wish, try to rig the result by forging ballot papers in their favour, as the recent cases of electoral fraud over postal votes demonstrate all too well.

The crisis must be serious because even the most enthusiastic cheerleaders of the New Labour' project seem vaguely aware that there is a problem.

I suspect they will do one of two things. Either a target will be set for restoring trust and statistics manufactured to show that this has been achieved, or they will bring forward legislation to make the truth illegal.

KEVIN HEY, Castle Road, Colne.